Shades of Gray
by Dextra2
Summary: "Then why does everyone hate me?" "But trust me, kid, you had a choice between two evils, and you choose the lesser one. You did good, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." (Or an AU where Damian had to make the impossible choice.) One shot


**Don't own DC.**

* * *

It was his fault. All his fault. Everyone blamed him, he could see it in their eyes. ("_Chose my son. Your city or your brother"_) It should have been him under six feet of ground. It shouldn't have been Gray- Dick. It shouldn't have been his brother. ("_I promise Little D, everything's going to be alright. No one will blame you."_) Drake hated him. Father hated him. They all did. But Damian deserves it. He deserves all of it. ("_No one will blame you_") A liar, that's all he was. Why Dick? He didn't do anything, he didn't deserve this.

'_I'm sorry for failing you, Dick. I'm sorry Father. Please forgive me. I'm a failure.'_Damian thinks to himself, because no one wants to listen to him. If they're kind, (Ravager, Red Hood, Arsenal, Starfire, and a few others) they just ignore him, and send him a sympathetic looks once in a while. But some of them, (Superman, Father, Drake, and a countless amount of others) will totally ignore -except to glare at him. Father just pretends that he's not there. Damian briefly wonders if they would hate him as much if he blew up Gotham. He decides that they would all hate him.

'_If I died right now, would they grieve over my death? Probably not, no one seems to care about me.'_He blinks out a few tears, and wanders further away from the crowd. Damian swallows back a sob, but a few stray tears still fall. (_Tears start falling down his face as he brings the gun towards Nightwing's forehead._)

"Hey kid. You look like a mess." The said kid jumps back and turns towards the speaker, who was leaning against the doorway to his room.

"What are you doing here, Todd? If you're going to criticize me, then I don't want to hear it. I-I just can't." Damian lowered his head, admitting defeat before the battle even started. (_**BANG!**__Nightwing's body fell limply to the ground. He was still smiling, somehow proud that Robin chose the entire city of Gotham over him. Nightwing would never know how much his little brother had lost._)

Jason wasn't expecting that kind of answer, he was thinking that he'd be yelled at, beat up or just glared at. It never occurred to him that Damian had been beaten into submission like this. And Jason didn't like this; in fact he hated this crying broken child. "Listen kid, I know what you had to do. And it takes guts to do something like that. The world's not all black and white like everyone says. There's a million shades of gray in between. It's a pity that most heroes can't see them, but those who can see you as a good guy. A hero, even. I'm sure wherever Dick is, he's proud of you," Jason paused, not sure what do say next. Crap, the kid looked even worse than before.

"Then why does everyone hate me?" Damian asked, staring at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to look at Jason, it was simply too hard.

"Because..." Jason was at a loss for words, he didn't know how to explain that to a child. How could you tell someone (much less a child) that when an ally kills a more important ally, no matter the reason, everyone feels betrayed. "Some people don't see what happened like that. But trust me, kid, you had a choice between two evils, and you choose the lesser one. You did good, don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Damian's mouth opens and close, but no words come out. "Th-Thank you. I-I-"

"No problem." Jason cut in. The next words he said where a surprise, even to Jason himself, (and changed everything in the best way possible). "Want to stay with me? Until you're better, at least." The younger boy's face doesn't look as depressed as before when he nods. "Good, I'll talk to Bruce about you staying with me for awhile." Jason smiles at Damian as he walks over to Bruce.

Bruce says Damian can stay with Jason as long as he want to. But Jay's not allowed to corrupt Damian any more then he already is. Damian never calls Bruce to go back.

* * *

Barry Allen is used to a lot of strange and weird things. Like his nephew being friends with ex-Rouges. Or Guy Gardener doing incredibly stupid things in life or death moments. Barry Allen is also used to Batman and Superman not getting along very well. Like the one time Superman gave Batman decaf coffee. And then Batman dyed Superman's hair pink (long story). In short, being a founding JLA member has taught him to expect lots of strange thing from the other members. But he (and every other person there) never expected to walk into a meeting room while Batman was beating up Superman in it.

"Should we stop this?" Was his first question.

"Nah, Clark deserves this one." Hal answered.

"What did he do this time?" Barry asked, as he sat at the last empty chair at the table.

"Kal may-or-may-not-have said some very unkind things about Robin. In front of Batman, too," Wonder Woman added in. "J'onn, could you find the mop? Thank you!" A disgruntled Martian left to go find the mop.

"That was poor planning on him part. He knows that we're not allowed to talk about Robin, much less insult him. ... Should we take the blue kryptonite away from Batman now?" Orion butted in and asked.

"... Nah, let's make him sweat this a little. I mean, he's going to heal as soon we get the rock away from him anyways." Hal stated, and started a betting pool on how the fight would turn out. "And besides, Robin, wherever he may be, can come back anytime he wants to.

* * *

Flamebird sat on the edge of the building, his feet dangling off the sides. Red Hood glanced of him and asked Flamebird a question, "So, what do you think of the new Nightwing?" Hood immediately regretted that question, for an onslaught of insults about Batman came from the younger one's mouth. "OK, OK, I get it! No need to use that kind of language, D! Calm down!"

"Tt. How many times do I need to remind you about no name on patrol. Or using them at a stake-out. New rule: No using real names while the costumes are on, Hood." Flamebird glared at the man, his scar barely visibly in the low light. (Flamebird had gotten the scar, that ran across his cheek, from a run in the Joker when he was about thirteen.)

"What's the punishment? Taking my guns away? Make me stop killing? Oh wait- You already did that," Hood playful slapped his younger brother on the head, smirking underneath the helmet.

"Oh my gosh... Batman wasn't lying, you did stop killing." The pair of brothers turned towards the stranger, gasping once their brains processed who was the stranger that spoke.

"But- You can't- Dead- Killed myself- How?!" Were the exact words that Flamebird managed to say in between the gasping.

The stranger chuckled, "I thought I told you Little D, no one stays dead in our line of work. Still... Guess I own you an explanation, don't I?" The looks on their faces, or in Red Hood's case a lack of face, pretty much screamed yes.

"How 'bout I tell you two over a coffee?" Nightwing asked, still smiling at them.

"Of course we will accept. And Nightwing?"

"Yes Rob- Flamebird?" Nightwing barly manged to not call him Robin. (Damian stopped being that a long time ago, he reminded himself.)

"You're paying for the drinks."

"Yeah, the kid's right about that, Goldie."

* * *

**A/N!**

**This is just me practicing writing angst. Not much else to be said about that topic. Import info about the story: **

**1) Damian is Flamebird, in case you haven't figured that out. **

**2) The events in the story happen in a time space of about five of six years. The first part happens almost immediately after Dick dies. (Damian is ten at this point.) The second part happens a couple of years later, and the third part is a few years after that. **

**3) I chose the name Flamebird because- You know what? Google: Nightwing and Flamebird if you don't know why. **

**4) Flamebird's costume looks like Nightwing's in Batman the Animated Series, only the bird is yellow on the bottom, orange in the middle and red on the top. (And he has a scar on one side of his face from the run with Joker.) **

**5) Damian and Bruce don't get along well. They care about each other, but don't get along. This is the main reason why Damian lives with Jason. **

**6) Dick came back from the dead. The only reason Damian and Jason didn't know was because the two of them don't see or talk to the rest of the Batfamily that much. So no one told them.**

**Sorry for the length of the AN, I just wanted to clear some things up. **

**Beta-d by Purrplegal98. Any errors are my (Dex) or her fault. **

**R&R**


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